FIG. 8 (Prior Art) is a diagram of an interactive television system 300 that enhances a television viewing experience by integrating television programming with content from the Internet. The broadcast of a baseball game can, for example, be enhanced by retrieving relevant information (for example, a batter""s batting statistics 301) from the Internet and displaying that information at an appropriate point in the baseball game (for example, when the batter 302 is batting).
System 300 includes a server 303 maintained by the broadcaster, a broadcasting antenna 304, a transceiver unit 305, a television set 306, and an Internet access point 307. Transceiver unit 305, which may be a set-top box, includes a receiving antenna 308 and a remote control unit 309. A viewer uses remote control unit 309 to control the transceiver unit and/or to interact with interactive television content via the transceiver unit. A video link 310 couples transceiver unit 305 to television set 306 so that the transceiver unit can use the television set as a display device.
FIG. 9 (Prior Art) is a block diagram of transceiver unit 305. TV interface circuitry 311 of the transceiver unit 305 includes a tuner that is tuned to receive broadcast television video and to remove a television carrier signal. TV interface circuitry 311 digitizes the video signal after the carrier signal has been removed. Software executed by a digital processor 312 receives the digitized signal from TV interface 311 and decodes and checks the digitized signal for errors. Transceiver unit 305 drives the television set 306 via video encoder 313 and audio digital-to-analog converter 314. Digital processor 312 realizes a type of web browser that can access the Internet via a modem 315. Transceiver unit 305 includes an infrared interface 316 for receiving infrared transmissions from remote control unit 309. Local storage provides memory for processor 312, and may house a web browsing program.
Television video 317 is broadcast over the airwaves from broadcasting antenna 304 to receiving antenna 308 of transceiver unit 305. At an appropriate time in the baseball game when the broadcaster wishes batter statistics 301 to be displayed (for example, when batter 302 appears on the television screen), the broadcaster broadcasts a trigger 318 along with the television video 317. Trigger 318 contains a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) that identifies an information resource 319 on the broadcaster""s server 303. In this case, information resource 319 is a web page containing the batter""s statistics.
Transceiver unit 305 receives trigger 318, accesses the Internet via Internet access point 307, uses the URL from the trigger to retrieve the web page of batter statistics from server 303, and then displays the batter statistics 301. In this way, broadcasters use triggers to have their viewers"" transceiver units retrieve information from the Internet and display that information in concert with their programming. Transceiver unit 305 and television 306 together form a user interface device that is a client of the server 303 while connected to the Internet, similar to personal computer that is connected to the Internet by an Internet service provider (ISP).
In general, connection of a user interface device to the Internet may be made by a variety of communication channels, including twisted pair telephone lines, coaxial cable, and wireless signal communication via local transceivers or orbiting satellites. Most user interface device Internet connections are made by relatively low-bandwidth communication channels, mainly twisted pair telephone lines, due to the existing infrastructure of such telephone lines and the cost of implementing high-bandwidth infrastructure. This constrains the type of information that may be presented to users via the Internet connection, because television transmissions generally require greater bandwidth than twisted pair telephone wires can provide. U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,381 to Perlman et al., which is incorporated by reference herein, provides means for distributing high-bandwidth information to users via low-bandwidth communication channels by distributing the content at times when the users are not using the Internet connection.
Connecting to the Internet via an ISP over a low-bandwidth communication channel typically involves a delay of perhaps thirty seconds. During this time, general video information stored in a user interface device may be displayed, as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/149,405 to Bruck et al., incorporated by reference herein. This video information is downloaded via the Internet, for example overnight, so that it may be displayed when the user interface device is being powered-up at a later time. The general video information may also be displayed on the user interface device during a reconnection to the Internet after a long period of disconnection from the Internet.
Once connected to the Internet another delay commonly occurs when the user attempts to access a web page, particularly as information from the web page is transferred to the user interface device. Depending upon the protocol employed, further delay may be encountered as the temporary connection between the user interface device and web page is established. It is common during these delays for an hourglass or similar symbol that signifies waiting to be displayed to the user. Also, a simple graphic associated with the link or web page being accessed may be displayed during the delay in loading the web page, as disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/149,407 to Bruck et al., incorporated herein by reference. Such a graphic may be static or may display simple motion. The information required to display the graphic is downloaded prior to display of the graphic, the graphic information download occurring during idle time after a first web page has finished downloading and before another web page has been requested.
Television and video differ from web graphics in the apparent richness of the television or video experience as compared with the relative simplicity of animated web graphics. Other differences may be categorized in terms of formats or standards. Television standards include National TV Standards Committee (NTSC), Phase Alternating Line (PAL), Systeme En Couleur Avec Memoire (SECAM), and Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC). Video, which may involve compression of television information for facilitating transmission and storage, has standards including Moving Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) and variants MPEG 1-4 and M-JPEG.
Web pages and graphics, on the other hand, accord to formats or standards such as American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) for text, Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) for pictures and Macromedia Flash for vector graphics. Web pages and graphics are presented via hypertext markup language (HTML) or extensible markup language (XML) documents that are interpreted by web browser programs executed by a processor in the user interface device to create the desired display.
A general difference between web graphics and television or video files is that web graphics are run as programs that manipulate the display in an organized manner defined by the programs, whereas television and video files are presented in a typically large series of display frames, each of which may include information about all the pixels forming the frame. As a result, presentation of a television file or video file requires many times the amount of information required for a web page presenting web graphics of a similar duration. This difference is usually apparent to the viewer, as web surfing typically does not offer the rich visual and audio presentations available via television or video. On the other hand, television and video do not offer the variety of topics available to a user by navigating millions of web pages available on the World Wide Web.
An advantage of the present invention is that richly detailed video and audio may be displayed by a user interface device virtually immediately upon clicking a link for accessing a web page, the video and audio corresponding in content to the link that was clicked. The realistic experience offered by this lifelike video and audio may be particularly beneficial for advertising associated with the link and web page being accessed. In fact, this content may be so entertaining that it lasts beyond the time needed to mask the delay in accessing and loading the web page.
In order to provide to the user the large amount of information needed for playing realistic audio and video files, that information may be downloaded to the user interface device prior to the user clicking on the link. The information may be downloaded during a period when the user is not interacting with the Internet, such as during the night, and may be stored on an information storage unit of the device. When the user then clicks on the link, the web page associated with the link may be accessed and begin loading. During this interstitial period, the previously downloaded information associated with the link is played as a video file, inserting a video experience into a web experience.
A signal generated by the click on the link at the user interface device may be sent to a service center that both signals the user interface device to play the previously downloaded video file, and prefetches the requested web page from a remote server. The initial signal may be in the form of an uniform resource identifier (URI) that itself contains plural URIs, one of which is directed to a web page provided by a remote server and another of which is directed to a file on the user interface device containing the previously downloaded information. The service center may thus manage the advertisement or other video file that is played in response to actuating the link, including anticipating user preferences and prioritizing information to be played.
In one embodiment, a presently disclosed xe2x80x9cClick-To-Videoxe2x80x9d advertisement of the present invention allows users to select an advertiser""s banner ad and then to view a fullscreen, full-motion video-TV commercial for the advertiser""s product before arriving at the advertiser""s Web site. This feature benefits advertisers by allowing them to seamlessly integrate their online and television campaigns, and benefits audiences by providing them with entertainment while they access information they find relevant.